random reflections

Two Cards for Keep It Clean and Simple

I have two cards today for the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge:  Keep It Clean and Simple. Most of my cards would fit this challenge, but these latest two---one for a friend's birthday and the other for a friend whose husband entered hospice are definitely CAS.

First the birthday card. I bought a new stamp set by Penny Black , "Blooming Garden," while we were away. When I first started stamping years ago, I owned a few wooden stamps by Penny Black, but this is my first acrylic set. It's all florals. I'm taking a watercolor card class that starts next week, and I think the images will be perfect for watercoloring.

I love these poppies, and this time I colored them using Copic markers. I added a little Wink of Stella glitter to them as well, but try as I might, I could not get it to show up in a photograph. The sentiment is also from a new stamp set I found in Chicago by Avery Elle called "Oh, Happy Day."  The font for these sentiments if very different from anything else I have.

The next card was inspired by this one Cristina created for last August's Papertrey Ink release of "Mum's the Word. "I started with an embossed flat card by Paper Source, and masked the border to stamp inside.

The mum was stamped once, and then again without reinking. The sentiment which seemed perfect for this sad occasion is combined from "Boutique Borders: Sympathy" and "Winter Hills." All three sets are by Papertrey Ink.

When I heard about our friend entering hospice, it occured to me that we always seem to have at least one friend or acquaintance with serious health concerns. It's probably a function of our age, but too many of them are younger than we are. I count my blessings every day, and continued good health is top on the list.

Make It Monday: Water Splats

Given that Papertrey Ink is my favorite stamp company, and I own more of their stamps than all the rest of my rather extensive collection combined, I thought I'd be participating in the Make It Monday challenges on a regular basis. But it hasn't happened. I was intrigued, however, by Nicole's video this week about using stamp pads to blend inks, and then adding water to make "water splats."

I ended up really liking this process, and the final card, which will be in the mail for my niece who turns 21 next month. I used Orange Zest, Raspberry Fizz, and Summer Sunrise for the ink blending.

The Wet Paint stamp set works wonderfully with this technique. I mounted the final piece on a piece of gold cardstock, then on a Raspberry Fizz card. The star die cuts are new ones I picked up this month from Memory Box, and they'll be getting a lot of use!

ETA: I'm entering this in the Moxie Fab "Hip on Handwriting" challenge.

April Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

Being away for 10 days meant the month of April just flew by. Here it is, the 25th already. We've finally had a few spring-like days and are beginning to see the green buds on trees and bushes. What a relief! We planted some pansies yesterday, and we have a bouquet of daffodils from our yard on the kitchen table. This month's Papertrey Ink Blog Hop challenge was to find a piece of embroidery to inspire a card, and I was anxious to use some new floral images I got in my last Papertrey Ink order.

Although there's plenty of inspiration in this inspiration board, I went off to Pinterest to see what I could find. I knew from the start that I wanted to use theBotanical Blocks stamps to create my cards. The bright colors against a black background attracted me to this piece.

 

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The orange, yellow, and greens seemed perfect for the sunflower image in Botanical Blocks.

I embossed the sunflower block with Memento Luxe Ink and colored it with Copic markers. The sentiment is also from Botanical Blocks, and I added just a narrow cardstock frame and two A Muse black pearls to finish it off. Here's a closer look.

Next I found this piece with a much different color palette.

 

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I decided to try watercolors for the image of the rose, and again embossed it with the Memento Luxe ink. I love that you still get the fine detail of the stamp after embossing.

I chose the purples and greens from the inspiration piece as well as the pink border. I added a few white highlights with a Molotow paint pen in the center of the rose. I dry embossed the border with a Spellbinders Matting Basics die which made the perfect frame, then hand cut the sentiment and popped it up with a piece of adhesive foam. The Soft Stone card base seemed perfect for the watercolored piece.

 

I'm linking both cards to this week's CAS-ology Challenge:  

 

It was fun to play around with a new product, and it's good to add a couple cards to the stash for the long list of May birthdays on my calendar.

Zoom In, Zoom Out: Easter Fun!

The Typepad platform has been down (in my case) for over four days. Whoever or whatever hacked the site certainly caused a big hassle!

 

But it's back up today in time for Helena's meme Zoom In, Zoom Out. This week was a no-brainer. After church we quickly changed clothes and went to Matt and Betsy's to "help" Skylar with her Easter egg hunt. She loved it. We loved it.

Zoom Out

Zoom In

"Oh, no," cried Skylar when she saw this egg. Although the plastic eggs had only been in the yard a few minutes before we arrived, a squirrel had eaten away both ends of the egg and stolen the M&M inside!

We found another surprise during the Easter egg hunt, just outside the fenced in yard.

If you look closely you can see a nest with three tiny eggs. Here's the momma who wandered off the nest as Skylar was looking for eggs along the fence. She didn't seem overly concerned about us at all.

A family friend of Betsy's arrived with a little wagon filled with two stuffed bunnies while we were there. Skylar loved the bunnies, but the wagon was the best gift.

Fortunately, Skylar is tiny so she's not too big to be hauled around in the wagon herself. After her ride, she hoped her dad could get in. Not so much.

While we were in Chicago we took Caleb to the Museum of Science and Industry. Grandpa picked out a bubble gun for Skylar, and it was a huge hit with both Skylar and her dad.

I loved the pretty bokeh in this one. I hope you had a lovely weekend. Our weather was spectacular for a Rochester Easter, but it's turned cold and rainy again today. Ah, Spring in western New York!

 

Happy Easter!

We'll soon be off to church. I always look forward to Easter services. The church is filled with flowers, joy, and wonderful music provided by our choir and a group of brass instrumentalists. Afterwards we're going to Matt and Betsy's to help Skylar hunt for Easter eggs, and then to my sister-in-law's for the annual Walker Easter dinner. Too much food, but lots of good company and fun.

I left some goodies for Caleb's Easter basket in Chicago, and have a little basket ready for Skylar later this morning. Both got Easter cards as well. (Of course!) I saw this card on Pinterest, and when I came across these bunny stickers in my stash, I was all set. 

The hearts on both cards were die cut with Papertrey's Stitched Heart and then filled with patterned paper. The paper on Skylar's is from A Muse, and Caleb's is from Lawn Fawn's "Into the Woods" paper pack. The bunny stickers are surely Jolee, but they've been in my stash for so long, there was no manufacturer information with the sheet of stickers. I printed the sentiment on the computer. 

I hope these bunnies find you enjoying good weather and a happy holiday!

Zoom In, Zoom Out

It's been quite a few years since I've colored Easter eggs, but Caleb, Sarah, Tracy, and I had a fine time coloring eggs before we left Chicago. It was the perfect opportunity for this week's Zoom In, Zoom Out, Helena's fine meme. We'll start with the Zoom Out, and get closer and closer. Caleb was clearly pleased with the project.

Tomorrow we'll get a chance to watch Skylar hunt for her Easter eggs. It's supposed to be a glorious warm and sunny Easter here. I hope the weather man is not wrong!

 

Liberate Your Art Blog Hop

I'm a day late getting this post up, but we were on the road home from Chicago yesterday. This is the third year I've participated in Kats' fabulous postcard swap, and every year I enjoy it more. When I got home I discovered the last of the postcards I received this year, and they are the lovliest ones yet.

The first card to arrive was this beauty from Barbara Hurst in Arizona. You really should take the time to visit her blog and see the wonderful photography there. 

My next piece of happy mail came from Evelyn Spikes in Elgin, OR. Not only is the photograph lovely, but the quote is as well.

This is the second time, I've been lucky enough to receive a pice of art from Suzette in Texas. After a lovely quote by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Suzette closes with this lovely thought, "May the seeds of creativity find their way to your door." Love it, and love this postcard.

I just love this rooster painted with acrylics on canvas by Meredith Gisness. I have a collection of chickens and hens I rotate through my kitchen so this fine fellow is going to find his way to the kitchen bulletin board.

Here when I arrived home was this beauty from Sheila. I'm not sure where Sheila hails from, but you can find more of her work here on her blog.

Last, by not least, was the postcard from our hostess (and my long-time blog friend), Kat. I'm so annoyed that the Portland Post Office stamped the front of the postcard rather than the back! Does anyone know how I might remove it without ruining the postcard?

Many thanks, Kat, for taking on this huge project another year! It inspires me every year, and encourages me to get my art out there. And thanks, too, to the wonderful artists whose work I received this year! All of them will be proudly displayed!

 

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday was Adam's birthday. He celebrated by preaching a fine sermon for Palm Sunday, opening a pile of gifts for his newfound interest in drawing and art, and a dinner out. Knowing he was getting a lot of art related gifts, his card reflects that.

I started with a Hero Arts kraft notecard, and splattered on some yellow and red paint. I die cut two Spiral Notebook dies (Papertrey Ink), one in red and one in Select White. The paintbrushes stamped on the white notebook die are from the" Friendship Jar Fillers", colored with Copic Markers with some Glossy Accents on the paint. The little clothespin is American Crafts, and the sentiment comes from "Be" - the stamp and the die (Simon Says). 

I have to admit being as interested in his gifts as he is, and hope to spend some time looking through the many books he received as gifts.

Before I left, I posted two birthday cards to friends who are celebrating significant birthdays this month. They're variations on the same theme.

Both cards use a negative die cut with Papertrey's "By The Numbers"  & "Suffix Style" die cuts, backed with patterned paper. (I'm posting this from Chicago, and don't remember which paper pad I used.) The rest of the sentiment comes from "Birthday Basics" (Papertrey).

Although we're delighted to be here to help Adam celebrate, we did miss the big celebration for the 80th birthday while we were away.

One Little Word: March & ZIZO

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In my efforts to SIMPLIFY, here were my March intentions and a progress report:

Declutter and Purge

• Den purged. One bag of books donated to the library; closet emptied, painted, and organized; another bag of office supplies/notebooks to Goodwill
• Feedly purged:  stopped following blogs I didn’t read regularly so it’s easier to keep up with the inspirational blogs I love

Healthy Living - increase the number of vegetarian meals:

With just a few exceptions, I’ve established a routine of eating vegetarian 2 of 3 meals each day. I’m enjoying it, and not finding it difficult at all. Some days it’s all vegetarian.

Read 4 books:

I only managed 3 books this month, but our book group book was over 700 pages long.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and despite it’s length (771 pages) finished it in just two weeks. It got mixed reviews at our couples’ book group. Tracy thought it was way too long, but agreed the writing is superb.

I’ve read nearly everything Kelly Corrigan has written, and enjoyed it all. This is another memoir about her time as a nanny in Australia and how it changed her relationship with her mother. In some ways, it was hard for me to read since I lost my mom at such a young age, and never got a chance to know her as an adult. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it, and it was an easy read.

This was one of the most difficult books I’ve read in years. It was the Lenten book for our church, and our pastor led a retreat around the book a week ago Saturday. I could only go for the first hour since my Dining Room Ministry team was cooking lunch that day. The author is a poet, and I don’t find reading poetry an easy task. When the writing was more narrative, I enjoyed the book, and found some of his insights profound. In other sections the writing was elaborate, and it was difficult to extract the meaning from it. I wish I could have stayed for the whole retreat; I'm sure I would have gotten more from the book with some shared insights. (One of the big advantages to a book group.)

Classes:

Truthfully I should be working on classes I've yet to finish, but instead I enrolled in the Online Card Class: One Layer Cards, and tried many of the featured techniques. These classes are a great value. For each lesson there were a minimum of three videos, three more step-by-step projects, and a pdf of the lessons. Participants have access to the content of the class indefinitely; the message boards and galleries are closed for participation, but the content of those remains open as well. I always learn new tricks, and this time learned quite a few new techniques.

Photography Projects:

I’m way behind with the challenges in The Visual Toolbox as well as the online course, Practice. For the latter, the terrible weather has definitely been a factor so I think I can probably catch up once spring arrives. I am thoroughly enjoying Helena’s meme, Zoom In, Zoom Out.

 And here is this week's, taken several days ago. Friends of ours asked if we thought Caleb would like a tricycle. We knew he didn't have one yet, so brought it along with us. The first experience was a bit tentative, but when we "rode" it to the playground the other day, it was a huge hit. He's just beginning to get the idea of how to pedal.

 

Sarah arrived home from California a "new" woman. After being a student for all but two years since she graduated from high school, she decided to say "enough." She finished all the class work for her PhD a couple of years ago. She just finished writing her last comprehensive exams, but when she got to Berekley to defend the exams, she realized she's lost her passion for the research needed for the dissertation. The work she now hopes to do doesn't require a PhD. Two more years of steady research and writing seemed overwhelming. The door to the degree remains open without a second application for two more years, so she has time to reconsider, but she's feeling very relieved. I think you just know when the time is right for these decisions. She'll have more time to spend with Caleb, time to pursue some recreational interests, and opportunities to grow her spiritual direction practice. 

Today is Adam's birthday, and I'll be back tomorrow to share his birthday card as well as two others that went out this week.

 

 

One Photo & Twenty Words

Lucky me! He wanted to "see Caleb" in the camera's viewfinder, so was willing to sit still for a portrait.

Joining in with Abi's One Photo & Twenty Words meme. You'll find others here.